Windows 10 what, you ask? I don’t blame you for not knowing. Windows 10 S was Microsoft’s attempt to grab market share back from Google and its Chrome OS-powered Chromebooks. It failed.

Oh, Microsoft isn’t saying that. On the official Windows 10 S website, you can find Microsoft still telling you how 10 S has more security, great performance, yadda-yadda. What I said, back when it first showed up in May 2017, was that Windows 10 S was crippleware.

I was right. 10 S, I said last year, was a “Windows” operating system that couldn’t run your 32- or 64-bit Windows software. It still can’t. Instead, you’re stuck with second-rate Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications.

I find it more than a little telling that a recent overview of the 10 most popular UWP programs included Dropbox, eBay and Facebook Messenger. What’s that you say? Those are just websites or web services? Why, yes, they are. If those are full-featured applications, I’ve been doing computing all wrong for the last 40 years.

I mean, if you’re going to use Windows 10 on your desktop, use Windows 10 already — Windows 10 Pro to be exact!

Come on, Microsoft! Enough of the pretending. We know what’s going on. No one wanted a version of Windows that just ran limited UWP software. Trying to pretend Windows 10 S wasn’t a flop just makes you look stupid.

Oh, by the way, don’t let the 10 S fiasco poison your mind about the product it was trying to play catch-up with. Anyone who really does want an operating system that’s lightweight, fast, secure and useful should buy a Chromebook. Google Chrome OS gives many users all the operating system they’ll ever need, with none of the confusion that came with Windows 10 S.